MORSE

I'm sure that Jean Louis is one of the most innovative and surprising RIO bands of the last years. Their debut is really shocking and powerful, full of enjoyable sections that mixes the most wild RIO of the new century, jazzy moods, some chamber rock and freaky syncopated rhythms. With their secind release, Jean Louis just confirm the superb talent of their musicians when they create that singular kind of music.

Even when you can find lots of influences, the truth is that the sound of Jean Louis (complex, dark, heavy and constant changing) looks very unique. The openers Lady Crash and Schaerbeek, are two clear examples of the "musical earthquake" that you'll find along the11 tracks of this amazing album full of tension, experimental fusions of different genres and construction of hard atmospheres in which crescendos leaded by trumpet and bass are totally delightful.

Some other highlights are the noisy Doom,, 5 Tournant, Morse and Sapiens, tracks in which you find a lot of great and wild moments of brilliant jazzy-heavy-RIO... I had to insist: This is one of the most interesting, experimental and innovative bands of the last years and you would't repent of take this album and listen from the first to the last second... It's a noisy trip that you deserve to listen once and again...

For my first experience with Jean Louis, I cannot say I am awestruck. It's weird, as well it should be, but it's also rather two-dimensional. The drumming is the most appealing aspect of this record. Not to be ugly, but each non-percussive instrument sounds like it could have been produced by one's posterior after a load of pinto beans. The musicians are talented, and the compositions are energetic, but all of this is painful to sit through.

"Lady Crash" This is noise. I do not like it.

"Schaerbeek" This consists of noise, namely wild drums and ridiculous guitar infusions. It is energetic, but frankly sounds like the instruments are out of tune and they just had to make the best of it. The excellent trumpet solo through a Bitches Brew-like delay tries to make sense of the mayhem. The distorted bass could be fun, but becomes wearisome after a while.

"Tartaglia" Initially more of an alternative rock tune (although again with a farting bass), this third track only impresses with the drumming. It does eventually move into directionless avant-jazz-rock.

"Doom" Sputtering bass lands in with hellish sounds. The lead instrument is like an electric guitar run through a Leslie at full speed, but I'm not sure it's in tune. The bassist and trumpeter try to impress with wild runs alongside each other, but they annoy more than astound.

"Junky Clown" The title says it all. It sounds like a man plagued by hemorrhoids is cleaning his affected area with ethanol while broken toys shriek in the bathroom. Okay, maybe the title didn't say it all after all.

"5 Tournant" There is something slightly ELP here. The exotic tones are remarkable, but it's the drumming that is inspired. The distorted bass distracts from what is good on this track.

"Morses from Mars" Like a tribe of evil natives from some distant jungle were wielding a dentist's drill, this makes me plead for an aural anesthetic.

"Morse" There be more noise here. I can't get into it, but the final minute or so is very cool.

"Milwaukee" I suppose this is the slide trumpet, but it's hard to tell with the yippy dog in the background.

"Sapiens" At least the rhythm is simple enough to allow for some decent trumpet action to occur.

"Doomus" At last the bass playing is good.

The masters of Industrial Tech Jazz have returned! Whereas their debut album might have been a little simple and messy, this album is more mature and closer to a masterpiece. The songs lead into each other more fluently and the music is calmer and jazzier. There is also more variety and colour to the album.

The first piece is 'Lady Crash'. This features the sound of a car race and some noises. It actually makes a great intro 'Schaerbeek', a song with a bit of a car race ambient(don't ask me how). It also has a surprisingly catchy melody in the second half of it.

'Tartaglia' starts off more chilling than any other Jean Louis song I've ever heard, but the madness does kick in after a while. Still one of the calmer pieces of the album.

'Doom' is what it claims to be, doom, and eight minutes of it. Very creepy atmospheres and frantic drumming make that this is one of the best pieces here.

'Junky Clown', a short weird acid piece with a lot of squeaky sounds. The band probably thought that the previous two songs were too normal...

'5 tournant' is a jazz rock piece with a lot of odd time signatures. One of the most accessible pieces and also one of the calmer ones, apart from the outrageous drumming.

'Morses from Mars' is a creepy interlude with a strange buzzing sound that leads into 'Morse'.This is a classic Jean Louis piece with a lot of effects, extremely aggressive drumming, heavy bass at no more than 100 Hz, screaming trumpet and again many different time signatures. If you liked their debut album, you will like this song as well.

'Milwaukee' is an another creepy interlude with dog barks and (I think) synthesizers.

When we're almost at the end, there is still a great piece to come, 'Sapiens'. This is my favorite song of the album and it's different from anything you've heard from the band. Less bass, more guitar, more fluently build up and more progressive than what you're used to.

The album ends in the short 'Doomus'. This one is an incredibly funky ending to an excellent album.

Overall the sound varies from the death metal of Gorguts to the jams of Frank Zappa to the free jazz of Miles Davis.

As a whole this album is at least as good as 'Jean Louis' and a must for avant-jazz fans.

Paris based JEAN LOUIS made quite the splash in the prog world in 2008 with their self-titled debut album which by the way is almost unsearchable on the internet. Naming themselves after perhaps the most popular name combo in the entire French language finds a gazillion hits of every aspect of French culture and beyond. Yes i digress but if you attach the name of their second album MORSE to the search then things get a little more fine tuned. While their debut caught the attention of the hardcore jazz- fusionists and avant-proggers, all the attention the band received seemed to fly off the radar by the time they released their sophomore album a mere two years later in 2010. MORSE finds this power trio of Aymeric Avice (trumpet), Joachim Florent (double bass) and Francesco Pastacaldi (drums) cranking out another masterful album of avant-garde jazzified rock in all its wild and experimental and instrumental glory.

The eponymous debut album set a new standard for diversity in a jazz-fusion meets avant-prog setting. The album was literally all over the place with a heavy noisy bass and drums punctuated by super angular trumpet runs that conspired to create some of the most demanding listening experiences in the prog universe. The three instruments were so out of the box that they were virtually unrecognizable for much of the album. MORSE continues much of that but in reality relies more on an alternative rock type of template that implements easier to follow rhythms and chord progressions. Well for some of the time. MORSE is a sleeker and easier to digest sort of beast only in comparison to the debut. The noise level is still set to maximum and complexities find themselves inserted in strange and unexpected places. The psychedelic jazz aspects are also in full play as they provide a hazy backdrop to the bass and drum rhythmic drives. MORSE consists of eleven tracks, three of which exceed the eight minute mark and four which are two minutes or less.

While the alternative rock is generally speaking the most common unifying factor, there are lots of noisy outbursts of the trumpet reminding me sometimes of John Zorn fueled bombast with distortion so fuzzed out that it sounds like the speakers are going to explode. Tracks like "Tartaglia" provide a more frantic example of the band's noisiest possibilities whereas the lengthy "Doom" sort of emulates a doom metal track with a slow and creeping bass groove that finds frenetic jazzy drumming conspiring with the extra touches of the Korg MS-20 synthesizer, a bona fide analog retro model from the late 70s which slinks and slithers around in utter chaos. The track slowly increases its intensity with faster tempos and more frenetic instrumental outbursts until it results in a cacophonous tempest of sound before calming down again and reestablishing the more simplified groove.

"Junky Clown" officially establishes the band as weird as it is basically a double bass in jazz mode accompanied by a series of electronic sounds that offer new forms of chaos and order. "Tournant" calms things down a bit but also reinforces several factors that make JEAN LOUIS a bona fide avant-prog jazzcore band, namely extreme dissonance, overtly frenetic tempos and impossibly convoluted complexities beyond the average ear's perception. Strange polyrhythms develop as each instrument seems to take on a life of its own and slowly fall out of sync in a mondo bizarro hypnotic sort of way. The title track unapologetically dishes out as much harsh trumpet noise as is humanly possible. Nice bass and use of percussion though. While the trumpet has many moments where it sounds like a distorted electric guitar, here it becomes completely unhinged and needs a bona fide exorcism. "Milwaukee" is more of a simple groove, beat and has a dog barking!

JEAN LOUIS's debut was really all over the place and while MORSE has its share of diverse dynamics, tempos and timbre shifts, the power trio seems to spend a lot of time emulating the power and intensity of a metal band without actually being one. Never before have i heard the trumpet used and abused so greatly and who'da known that it could sound like a guitar. Like wild beasts that are utterly untamable, JEAN LOUS spread the joy of electro-jazz-punks with a serious attitude and absolutely no intention of finding middle ground for the sensitive types out there. This is manic music for only the most hardcore of musical sadomasochism where ever jarring sound it as punishing to the senses as is humanly possible. This is brutal prog for brutality's sake alone. While somewhat tamer than the debut album, tracks like the orotund "Sapiens" continue to remind that in the world of JEAN LOUIS there is no compromise. This is for the noise crowds and the admirers of distorted swirling chaos only.